The Numbers: Marijuana use rises among adolescents

Although nearly two-thirds of adolescents polled for the 43rd annual Monitoring the Future survey said they disapprove of regular marijuana use, the study finds that usage of the drug among students in 10th and 12th grades is up for the first time in seven years. A total of 43,703 students in grades 8, 10 and 12 from 360 public and private schools from across the country participated in the survey, which was conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the University of Michigan.

Among the study’s marijuana-related findings:

• 71% of high school seniors said they do not view regular marijuana smoking as harmful, although 64.7% said they disapprove of regular marijuana use.
• 37.1% of 12th graders have used marijuana within the past year, a year-over-year increase of 1.5%. Overall, 24% of students surveyed in the three grades overall have used marijuana within the past year, a 1.3% increase from the previous year.
• 5.9% of 12th graders use marijuana daily, overtaking daily use of cigarettes (4.2%).
• 39.9% of high school seniors said they have used an illicit drug within the past year, up from 38.3% in 2016. Excluding marijuana use, however, illicit drug use among the same population is down 1% year-over-year (13.3% vs. 14.3%)

SOURCE: https://monitoringthefuture.org/